RU BCL's criminality takes new dimension

In their latest spate of criminality, three Bangladesh Chhatra League men at Rajshahi University abducted a university admission candidate on Monday night for ransom before releasing him 14 hours later, after senior leaders learned this and launched a search for the victim.

The victim, Junnun Walid Babu, who came to meet a female friend at the university from Dinajpur, was tortured in confinement. He sued six abductors and mentioned three names--RU BCL joint secretary Golam Kibria and activists Tawsik Taj and Sonnet.

The university unit BCL expelled the two activists and recommended expulsion of Kibria to the central body, for the abduction. Kibria, the prime accused in the abduction case filed with Motihar Police Station, was arrested on the campus last evening, said police.

Talking to The Daily Star before his arrest, Kibria denied the allegations and said, "His fellow BCL man and roommate Tawsik Taj was involved in the abduction; he can't take the responsibility."

On August 16, two factions of BCL clashed at RU in a bid to "establish supremacy", leaving four of them injured. Two days before, four activists beat up a student for protesting against harassment of two female peers.

Babu said he was abducted from a private student lodging in Talaimari of the city where he was staying with a friend. One of the abductors, Sonnet, also resided there, he said.

Sonnet, Taj, and the victim's female friend, all first-year students, are classmates in the Bangla department, he told The Daily Star.

Babu said that around 10:00pm Monday night, BCL activists Sonnet and Taj took him to Bangabandhu hall where their leader Kibria resided. He was later taken to Mirzapur in the city blindfolded, and the three demanded Tk 5 lakh from him, he said.

"As I refused to pay the huge sum of money, they tortured me throughout the night, both physically and psychologically. They pressed burning cigarette butts against my hands", he said, showing the black scars on the skin. "They also clubbed my legs with iron rods."

Babu took primary treatment to prevent infections.

Yesterday morning, the abductors called up his female friend, and she informed the matter to senior leaders, who launched a search for him, he said. When the abductors learned this, they released him in a paddy field in Mirzapur around 12:00 noon, he added.

RU BCL President Mizanur Rahman Rana told The Daily Star that they expelled the two activists and recommended expulsion of Kibria for abducting Babu.